Sign Up for Swamplot Emails:

Tag: President Obama

The president has just wrapped up his keynote speech at hippie-turned-techie-festival SXSW in Austin — but he’s been sighted all over the place today, including at the oft-redecorated corner of Alabama and Travis streets across the street from the Breakfast Klub. The newest mural was finished up last week in the recently whitewashed spot that has hosted various incarnations of Obama’s likeness over the last few years (and been vandalized several times).

Obama was also photographed earlier this afternoon at a Torchy’s Tacos in South Austin, where he reportedly ordered a Democrat, a Republican, and an Independent before heading back to the motorcade:

As polling dates roll through the country, the oft-transformedmural outside of the former Obama campaign headquarters in Midtown has been spotted sporting a fresh coat of background white. Allyn West, who first noticed the political banner’s changed stripes on Super Tuesday, sends this Disillusioned Thursday snapshot of the now-blanked wall. So far, the site has featured various incarnations of Obama: in the sky-gazing HOPE poster from Shephard Fairey, in a sunglassed hip-with-the-kids pose, and most recently in the above star-spangled baby-on-banner scene that first appeared in 2013.

The past murals have been the subject of political displeasure for at least one person, judging by 2 previous acts of similarly-angled paint vandalism:

Facing W. Alabama, Reginald Adams’s 2012 mural of President Obama was recently given a few extra splashes of color. Of course, this isn’t the first time the mural on the side of the former campaign headquarters at 3710 Travis has been the subject of political back-and-forth. Candace Garcia’s photos show the changes over the years, starting with a replica of Shepard Fairey’s Hope poster in 2008:

Okay, well at least it’s a history of the mural version of the Shepard Fairey poster based on Mannie Garcia’s photo, painted back in February 2008 onto the West Alabama side of the former Obama campaign headquarters at 3710 Travis St. Candace Garcia’s photos show the mural as it appeared a few days after the 2008 election (top) and shortly after the President’s midterm shellacking — and the mural’s Midtown spattering — late last year (middle). The bottom photo shows the result of a little rehabilitation work completed late last week, clearly meant to cover up and gloss over all the wear and tear Obama’s image has suffered over the last several years, and put it in brighter shape for the 2012 election season.

“The LER performed flawlessly in front of the President,” tweets NASA. And so it did, at the very end of the inaugural parade: dropping off a passenger dressed appropriately for the weather — who then walked off with the flag.